Occupational variation in burnout among medical staff: Evidence for the stress of higher status

Contemporary research highlights the serious mental health issues facing physicians and allied health professionals. Yet to date, much of this research has focused on these occupational groups in isolation. Drawing upon data collected from medical staff in a neonatal intensive care unit (N = 222), we address this gap by contrasting the mental health and workplace experiences of four groups of healthcare workers: physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and respiratory therapists. We find evidence that higher status healthcare workers—physicians and nurse practitioners—are more likely than their colleagues to report work-life conflict, irregular work hours, and heavy work pressure. These stressors explain an appreciable amount of the higher levels of burnout found among physicians and nurse practitioners. Collectively, results lend support to “the stress of higher status” hypothesis and provide insights into the job demands and mental health issues confronted by today's medical workforce. •Recent studies show high levels of stress and burnout among healthcare workers.•We examine job demands, coping resources, and burnout among staff in a NICU.•Doctors and nurse practitioners (NP) experience more burnout than their colleagues.•Doctors and NPs report more work-life conflict, irregular hours, and job pressure.•Differences in burnout are explained by job demands common to higher status staff.